Judah’s good king Azariah (Uzziah)
15
📚In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign.2 📚He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jecholiah; she was from Jerusalem. 3 📚And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, in accordance with all that his father Amaziah had done, 4 📚except that the high places were not removed. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
5 📚And the LORD struck the king, so that he was a leper 📖 to the day of his death and lived in a house apart 📖. And Jotham, the king’s son, was over the house, judging the people of the land.
6 📚And the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of The Annals 📖 of the Kings of Judah? 7 📚So Azariah slept 📖 with his ancestors; and they buried him with his ancestors in the city of David; and his son Jotham reigned in his place.
Four evil kings in Israel – Zechariah, Shallum, Menachem, Pekahiah
8 📚In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. 9 📚And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.
10 📚And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck him in front of the people and killed him, and reigned in his place. 11 📚And the rest of the acts of Zachariah, see, they are written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 12 📚This was the word of the LORD which he spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation”. And so it happened.
15:12 2 Kings 10:30. Zechariah was the last of Jehu’s descendants to occupy the throne. Once more the Word of God was fulfilled to the letter.⚜
13 📚Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned a full month in Samaria.
15:13 Uzziah is Azariah (v 1).⚜
14 📚For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him, and reigned in his place.
15 📚And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and the conspiracy which he made, see, they are written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
16 📚Then from Tirzah Menahem attacked Tiphsah, and all who were in it, and its territories. He attacked it because they did not open to him, and he ripped open all the pregnant women 📖 in it.
17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samaria. 18 📚And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. All his days he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.
19 📚And Pul the king of Assyria 📖 came against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents 📖 of silver, so that he might join hands with him to establish the kingdom in his hand.
15:19 Pul is another name for Tiglath-Pileser (1 Chron 5:26).⚜
20 📚And Menahem exacted the money from Israel, from all the wealthy men, fifty shekels 📖 of silver from each man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and did not stay there in the land.
21 And the rest of the acts of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Israel? 22 And Menahem slept with his ancestors, and his son Pekahiah reigned in his place.
23 📚In the fiftieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned two years. 24 📚And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. 25 📚But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him and struck him down in Samaria, in the citadel of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty Gileadite men. And he killed him, and reigned in his place.
26 And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did, see, they are written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
The Assyrians capture part of Israel
27 📚In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twenty years. 28 📚And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.
15:28 Verses 9,18,24.⚜
29 📚In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, came and took Ijon and Abel-Beth-Maachah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
15:29 This was the beginning of the end of the northern kingdom of Israel.⚜
30 📚And Hoshea the son of Elah conspired against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him down and killed him and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
31 And the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did, see, they are written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
15:8-31 These verses present a picture of national confusion, of plots and murder, of swift succession of evil leaders. All this resulted from the fact that the nation would not honor God and walk in His ways. The repeated refrain in these verses is “the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat” (vs 9,18,24,28).⚜
Judah’s good king Jotham
32 📚In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign. 33 📚He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jerusha. She was the daughter of Zadok. 34 📚And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD. He did everything just as his father Uzziah had done. 35 📚However the high places were not removed. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD.
36 📚Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Judah? 37 📚In those days the LORD began to send Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, against Judah. 38 📚And Jotham slept 📖 with his ancestors, and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David his father. And his son Ahaz reigned in his place.